30 ENTREPRENEURSHIP
- Construct your own entrepreneurial resume. This resume should emphasize your entrepre-
neurial experience, skills and abilities. The format should be:- Name and contact information at the top
- Entrepreneurial objective next
- Body of the resume: List your experience, most recent to earliest in this section.
Emphasize things that are entrepreneurial. Words that are entrepreneurial descriptors
include: initiated, founded, developed, designed, created, originated, organized, implemented. - References. Show off your connections and list influential people you might know or
might know you.
Delivering a Powerful Kick
So far her knees feel fine.
But 38-year-old fitness instructor Ilaria
Montagnani knows this may not be the case
forever. Last year she made $100,000 teach-
ing aerobics classes six days a week. In the
future she hopes to increase her earnings
while at the same time decreasing her physi-
cal effort.
In 1995 Montagnani, who has a black belt
in karate, teamed up with fitness and dance
trainer Patricia Moreno to create
Powerstrike™, a trademarked workout pro-
gram that blends aerobic routines with martial
arts movements. The program has been very
successful. Montagnani and a few instructors
now offer more than 50 Powerstrike classes
each week in the greater New York City area.
The program has been demonstrated on tele-
vision shows like “Today” and “Good
Morning, America,” and featured in maga-
zines including Allure, Jane, and Shape.
New York magazine named PowerstrikeTMthe
best exercise class in both 1999 and 2001.
But Montagnani has her eye on the future.
“I’m at my highest earnings level, and there’s
only one way to go from here,” she says.
She knows her options are limited. Some fit-ness instructors increase the price of their
classes as their popularity grows, or even
open a private studio. But experts say that
health club chains such as Equinox, Crunch,
and Bally Total Fitness offer stiff competition
to independent gyms. At the same time
these clubs are often too reluctant to pay an
outside expert to teach a fitness class, prefer-
ring to develop their own programs with in-
house staff.
As part of the solution, Montagnani has
been trying to build her program into a “name”
or a brand, much like fitness instructors Jack
LaLanne, Richard Simmons, or Billy Banks
have done with their exercise routines. To
expand in this fashion, she has extended her
offerings from one class to six different kinds
of classes, including her initial PowerstrikeTM
Kickboxing, the more intensive PowerstrikeTM
Kicks, PowerstrikeTMImpact (kickboxing with a
free-standing bag), PowerstrikeTMon Guard for
self-defense, PowerstrikeTMForza (also known
as Samurai Sword Training, which uses a
plastic Japanese-style fitness sword), and an
advanced body-sculpting program called
Powerstrike BodyTMStrikes. Montagnani also
(continued on next page)DISCUSSION CASE